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GOAL - It is no surprise that once
groups are set, football federations attempt to find teams that match
the style of “group” opponents.
2 or 3 available FIFA days to play friendly matches are in fact true for
all teams preparing for the world cup and is not limited to just Iran.
The current political climate which perhaps has made it difficult for
Iran to play friendly matches against some teams, or has made Tehran an
“undesirable” city in which to play a friendly, was not in place until
the latter part of December.
Some 225 days after qualifying for the world cup, Iran has played
exactly 4 friendly matches against mostly sub par teams except for the
match against South Korea in Seoul. We are now 130 days or so away
before Iran takes the field in Germany against Mexico and at this point
not a single friendly match has been confirmed.
We are finding out that Iran’s national team’s worst enemy is ineptitude
of a federation to schedule warm up matches and plan ahead.
All excuses of the world are being used to justify this plan of “no
plan” yet the rest of the world has played these friendly matches and
will play many more.
Not that we have not heard great teams and quality teams and some not so
great ones mentioned to play Iran over the last 7 months. In no
chronological order, there have been talks and/or “contracts” to play
Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Croatia, Romania, Czech
Republic, Spain, Ukraine, … but as this article is being written, Iran
has played exactly zero matches against the ones mentioned in this nice
and attractive list.
Then I read the following two news bites and tried to make sense of them
vs. what our national team is facing.
- Iran defeated Germany in a U19 tournament.
- Angola has no working telephone # for her federation yet has managed
to camp in Europe and play against a bunch of clubs to prepare for the
African Cup.
Let me explain the relevance of the two pieces of news.
Winning in football against any age level of Germany by Iran signifies
the tremendous potentials and fountain of excitement and love by
Iranians for the game of football.
Yet, Angola with no working telephone for her federation manages to
schedule matches against decent European clubs (and more power to
Angola) but the Iranian Football Federation (IFF) is still searching for
a fax that was sent by Romanian federation the first time Iran was
scheduled to play them or figure out why it “doesn’t make sense to play
Ukraine in Ukraine and it has to be played in Iran” or …
These examples are not just because of the current political climate in
Iran. They simply indicate the lack of qualification and big picture
understanding of those in charge of a football federation.
While Iran managed to defeat “Montakhab Kiish” (an all star team of a
sparsely populated Iranian island), Mexico defeats Norway in San
Francisco, Korea tied Greece and Angola participates in the African Cup.
But wait, there are only 2 FIFA days and Iran has all these European
based players that can’t get away for friendly matches, and Brazil
wanted 1 or 2 million dollars to play us and …
Yet, somehow, Mexico, Korea, USA, many Europeans and even Saudi Arabia
manage to squeeze 12 or so friendly matches in those 2 FIFA days.
Maybe they play 6 games a day…
Of course it is not exactly clear what and who will be using the FIFA’s
6 or 7 million dollars that was given to every world cup qualified team
and why couldn’t a portion of that be used for camping outside Iran and
playing a few good teams.
At the mean time, the world gets ready for the world cup and Iran’s IFF
is looking for another all star team of another small town so that
Iran’s national team could go crazy and make the coaching staff and IFF
look and feel good.
The question is, is IFF that “out of touch” just four months before a
World Cup?
Kaveh Mahjoob
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